Kenshin had calculated the remaining talismans and come to the conclusion that no matter if he gets a few more or not, he'll still be in the top 3. So, the essential thing to do is to lie low and stay out of sight. And that is what he did, after hunting a lone deer and roasting it in the top of the trees, because sue him, a forest fire have less of an priority than being seen. He'd taken to meditating and working on his chakra while waiting for the test to end, obviously there would be a fight in the vicinity from time to time, so his time weren't spent completely void of entertainment. In fact, you could say that he'd had more fun on average than he usually does, limited by his age as he is. Right now we find him lying on a sturdy branch, surrounded by the sounds of nature as he watches the newly risen sun, waiting for 48 hours to be up.
"It should be about time" he says slowly, with a calm that makes him seem one with nature.
"Very well, better get going then" With a sigh he falls toward the branch below, it creaks from the pressure exerted on it, threatening to snap at a moments notice, lucky for our mc's poise, it holds and returns to its normal position. Kenshin keeps a calm face throughout this whole incident, as if everything is expected and within his grasp. Closing his eyes for a second, you can see a brilliant gleam in them as they open, at the same moment he takes off with style.
'I can't believe i almost ruined my awesome acting, luckily nature agrees with my awesomeness and decided to lend a hand in spite of my folly' Depressively
After awhile he arrives before the clearing where they were supposed to meet up, only to see it completely empty. He decides to stand back and watch while waiting, not feeling the need to expose himself just yet. Kenshin feels a bit downtrodden as he could have sent a clone to scout ahead if he knew how to make one. By clone he means the illusory ones, not the psychical cheats that exist in a certain forbidden scroll. Though he does have his doubts about being able to make one, considering his abysmal chakra reserves.
After waiting for a while the first student show up in ragged clothes, breathing harshly, almost collapsing where he stand. His face hold pure relief and excitement as he imagines his teachers and parents proud gaze while looking at him, he did, after all, manage to keep his talisman.
As more people show up they begin to discuss where their teacher are, according to the sun it has been more than 48 hours. After a while of nothing they begin to eye eachother, eager to gain more talismans. The wind picks up and a flurry of leaves blow as their teacher, Hoshi, show up in the clearing. It's like he teleported, one moment they were alone, another they have a sheepish looking teacher excusing himself for being late.
Scratching the back of his head, Hoshi smiles "Sorry bout that, it's been … a busy morning" he says and his cheeks turn a little read in remembrance. He gathers some authority and speak loudly "Are we all here?" he questions as his gaze sweeps over the participating students. "You all hiding can come out now" While looking at seemingly random places around the groove, some students come out, with a more mature aura about them. This aura, is of course, a pure illusion and will disappear as soon as they hit the academy benches. Among the few you would be able to see Akira, Bakura and Kenshin to name a few. Kenshin inspects his peers and are surprised to see Masaki among them, he didn't think she would do well as she is easily flustered. Hiding his surprise he grins and waves at a few of his friends, acting cocky while at it.
Hoshi looks on with a smile and nods to himself, satisfied with the current batch of elites. He'd gotten a few reports from the assistant teachers supervising, but the more comprehensive one are still a work in progress.
Not everyone is happy to see the people who arrived, they had all lost in some way or another to these, but few could compare with the hatred a specific few had for Kenshin after his trickeries. 'No matter' he thinks as he sees a few familiar faces 'They're kids, forgive, forget and all that yadda yadda' he smirks in amusement, a smirk which widens as a kid's nostrils flares as he glares angrily.
"Alright class! You all had fun?" There are some weak protest, but none really spoke too loudly in fear of being focused on. Hoshi smiles and continues "I know this weren't exactly what you expected when you went into the forest, but I think we can all agree that it's been a learning experience" He says brightly, not at all paced by the depressed crowd. "You're all probably hungry, tired and can't wait to get home for a good night of sleep" Most of the class have a faraway look in their eyes as they imagine just that, some even drooling. "I too, have somewhere I'd rather be right now, so let's get a move on!" He says energetically. A little confused, but still accepting, the crowd keeps silent as he beings talking in the classic teacher way "Split into two groups, those without talismans on the right" Hoshi gestures to the right for the group "and those with on the left" while gesturing in the opposite direction.
Immediately the group split up, the majority being on the right.
"Dras, you're disqualified even if you managed to get an talisman afterward. Leave the talisman in this basket and move to the other group" Hoshi points at a medium basket beside his feed. Dras glares daggers at Kenshin as he slowly moves to follow the order, rather pissed about losing to someone he believes to be worse than him.
"That done, those with 1 talisman come forward" 5 kids come forward, Draken among them. Kenshin never thought that naive kid would stay in the game that long, but facts speak for themselves.
Hoshi beams down at them "Well done you all, I couldn't be more proud, stand over there while you wait" He says gently and points to a spot a little to the left for them. With puffed chest and a proud look in their eyes, they do as he said. Afterwards Masaki and that quiet kid, Roumaru was called up, Masaki were so flustered she almost tripped over her own feet, twice! While Bakura smiled coyly at the praise. Ryumaru kept his 'dead-face' when he was called upon next, though you could tell he was proud from his body language. When Akira was called up his acted with his normal boyish charisma, grinning all the while.
Kenshin was the only one left, some smarter students head counted the remaining talismans and gaped at the result. With a whopping 9 talismans he'd ultimately crushed all the competition. Whispers broke out as it were announced, before immediately quieting down as Kenshin arrived before Hoshi who looked down with a somewhat astonished expression.
"Very well done" Energetically
"You've truly proven yourself, Kenshin" He says with a grin. Kenshin responds with a grin of his own, before giving the talismans over. Walking over to this classmates. He gave a glance at their expressions and saw Akira with a somewhat envious look on his face, though he quickly hid it. 'Guess that friendship is shot' He thinks to himself 'Oh the folly of youth'
After some quick debriefing they sprint back to the academy, no one objects to the quick pace - eager to get home and rest. At the academy most parents stood waiting with anxious expressions which quickly turned into relief and elation upon seeing their kids. As the children run forward the kids from the orphanage scoffs at their 'childishness' before running back to the orphanage, if some of their eyes were a bit wet, nobody commented on it.
Back at the orphanage most of the kids fell asleep immediately, there were exceptions, of course, like Kenshin who's had a relatively easy time hiding in the trees. But, after eating Meat after a long period of the disgusting orphanage food, he couldn't go back to eating mud. Kenshin therefore made a point of hunting and preparing his own food from then on, if he had an apartment he'd be able to support himself without any help. Hell, if he had a tent he'd be able to survive by himself. Feeling a new kind of security with the knowledge that he doesn't need this village to survive anymore, he threw himself into training once again.
A few months later we see a child doing hand seals at a quick pace in a clearing. This in itself might not be very remarkable, in fact, some would say it's dreadfully boring, and they would be correct! What's remarkable, however, is the fact that he haven't made a single mistake in this whole time. Children his age would have at least failed somewhere, sometime by now, having to redo everything. But not this one, instead of failing, this one would stop to think if there was even a slight chance of failure, by doing this he's built up near perfect muscle memory of any kind of seal and their combinations, enough so that he could do this as many times the speed he is currently going at with a slight chance of failure. A slight chance which might evolve as he makes more mistakes.
'Puff' Kenshin breathes out slowly as he lowers his hands 'one thousand… and one' He smiles in satisfaction at another fruitful day. Like meditation, he finds there is a kind of selfless satisfaction to be fully conscious of one thing, in this case hand seals. But, enough is enough. Swinging his arm in a circle to get the kinks out, he begin to think 'Alright, I've got most of the fundamentals down by now, I merely need to repeat them every single day for the rest of my life… don't think too far, one goal at a time' Kenshin tries to keep the motivation up, but can feel it slowly slipping as each day go by… At the same time, something is changing, his outlook on life is changing. He watches his hands in silence for a few minutes, procrastinating, before clenching it and setting about his new task. In the last few months he's learned how to make clones, illusionary, but clones regardless. Along with a few other techniques like substitution, which allows for greater agility and transformation, a technique that makes genjutsu pale in comparison. A ninja cannot even be sure if the woman he beds is a real woman, well, unless you get too rough. When Kenshin first heard about this he'd been ecstatic about visiting some less than legal establishments. It seems, however, that there is a distinct lack of nerve endings when you transform, this didn't discourage Kenshin from enjoying some visual stimulation.
He sighs as he remembers the bliss of the last few weeks, unfortunately, or you could say fortunately, as the technique evolved he were able to create his own strip show. That in combination with the clone jutsu allowed him to create women of his exact tastes, rather than the burned out ones at the club. The situation might be rather awkward and the atmosphere lacking, but hell, he's not about to learn how to seduce a man for his wanking sessions.. Naruto might have had all to much time on his hands... That seems entirely unnecessary and backwards, not to mention unproductive.
All his training with the clone and transformation technique, their combinations and other miscellaneous techniques should, in theory, allow him to graduate. His mouth pull downward as he remember bringing this concern to his teacher a while back.
flashback
"Heyo Hoshi!" Kenshin yells as he walks into the class, Hoshi looks up from his fortress of paperwork and grins back.
"Hey there! How you doing?" Kenshin appears considering for a minute before responding.
"I guess it's good… but" Kenshin shakes his head and looks determined. Hoshi notices and lays down his pen to listen to his student voes "Actually, there is something I'd like to discuss with you, teacher". In a rare moment of solemnness, Hoshi nods along. The young prodigy then begins to whine "When do I get to graduate? I'm soooo bored" while pouting tragically. Hoshi breathes out a sigh of relief, something which could be easily overlooked by the untrained eye. He then smiles as usual, brightly. "Hahaha, Kenshin, always looking ahead, aren't you?" The focus of attention looks down in embarrassment. "Hmm, yes" He looks assessing "You should be able to graduate with your technique" Kenshin perks up at this. "You learned the academy three just recently, didn't you?" Kenshin nods quickly in agreement. A crafty smile appears on Hoshi's face "Yes, yes, you hit all the requirements for graduation" Kenshin smiles brightly as he expects the next sentence "If you weren't so damn weak! Hahaha". Our unruly prodigy gapes for a moments before turning red with rage, this body being entirely useless weren't a fault of his own! "You! You! I'll show you, you smelly old man!".
The laughter stops for a minute before the smelly old man in question leans forward menacingly "Oi, what did you call me kiddo?" Kenshin smiles nervously, before sticking his tongue out "I said you smell bad and got wrinkles" before running away with a laugh, leaving a roaring teacher behind. As he leaves the academy grounds his feet slow down and the expression on his face smoothly slip from his features "This is bad.. They might suspect me…." He suspects as his feet slowly moves towards home, mulling over this new information all the while.
Flashback end
Shaking his shoulders to get some feeling back, Kenshin consider the possibility of learning how to walk on water. Shaking his head and sighing in disappointment he considers his current situation and comes up with a general plan for the next few months. 'I need references for everything I learn, written information is preferred, but other sources could work just as well if I lead the conversation well'
He decides to work on his social skills as a hobby and refine what he knows for now, at least until the heat disappears. 'I'll keep bugging him for early graduation, no matter how unlikely, anything less would be suspicious'
Considering all these matters, feeling his stomach rumbling, Kenshin touches his abdomen lightly and decides to hunt for a meal 'Hmm, rabbit seems good today'
He smiles genuinely before whistling loudly and clearly, somewhat in love with his new simple life, regardless of the hardships.
'And then, someday, I might learn to play the flute or something'
Imagining himself with a flute in hand, battling enemies to death in an epic showdown with background music of his own making, Kenshin laughs as he disappears in a swirl of leaves.